PEOPLE OF COLOR, ESPECIALLY MUSLIMS. Avoid booking your events at Town. We have filed a case against them with the NYC Human Rights Commission due to their racist practices with our group. My company Bibi Magazine, a bridal magazine for South Asian-Americans, and Stardust Magazine, a Bollywood news magazine, recently held a bridal show at Town. Six days before the event, once the owners, Robin and Scott Sokoloff and their manager, Stacy Jacobs, finally saw the full list of participating bridal vendors (many with Muslim and ethnic-sounding names), they cancelled the event contract for reasons based on a technicality--citing that our catering vendors didn't have the right licenses. To be clear, the catering vendors in question are currently multi-million dollar businesses that regularly cater upscale South Asian weddings and events in places like The Pierre, The Plaza, etc. With 300 people rsvp'd to attend including a full house of upscale bridal vendors, we desperately reached out to Town asking them to not cancel the contract as it was too late for us to change the venue. Two days later, four days before the event, Robin and Scott called me and demanded we pay an increased security deposit and also, pay an additional $2500 so they could hire security guards because they deemed our group of South Asian brides and bridal vendors "a security risk" -- their words. They made us cancel all of our catering and cake vendors so there was no food at the bridal show. They also made us cancel our liquor and wine sponsors because, as the owners said, our "group could not be trusted with alcohol." After that, Robin continued to chastise us saying that, "we couldn't follow directions," and when we asked for an in-person meeting to make sure we were doing everything according to their rules, Robin and Scott stated that if we came to the property, we would be "trespassing" and they would call the police. (They wouldn't even let us know if our floor layout for the show was possible based on the venue's new construction, which of course it wasn't, and we had to make rearrangements at the last minute and deal with their faulty stage, but that's another story.) Luckily for us, two NYC city council members, Rory Lancman and Margaret Chin (from Manhattan District One where Town is located) responded to our pleas and stepped up on our behalf by reaching out to the venue to make sure the event would proceed as it was absolutely too close to the event date to change the venue. Hence, once the council members got involved, suddenly the staff at Town became super nice to our faces, but there was definite tension beneath the surface. We did have the event at Town, and yes, with six security guards watching over us. We were under major duress as the new contract addendum Town issued had such vague wording that we were constantly afraid the owners would shut the event down based on whatever whim they decided we were not following. During the course of the event, we had to be super vigilant that everyone followed the rules to the T and that all vendors and their equipment were out the door as soon as the event ended. If you've ever been to a South Asian wedding, you can appreciate this is no easy feat. We waited to post this as our legal advisors had said to wait until the NYC Human Rights Commission accepted our case, hence the delay in post. So in summation, stay away from this venue otherwise you may similarly be racially profiled, treated like a criminal, chastised and forced into increased payments for the very security guards that are there to monitor you. read more